Freight-carrying vessel



. (No Model.)

' 0. SALMOND.

PREIGHT'GARRYING VESSEL. I No; 596,218. Patented Dec. 28, 1897.

WITNESSES I Mignon I m N I ATTORNEYS,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

COLIN SALMOND, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

FREIGHT-CARRYING VESSEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 596,218, dated December 28, 1897. Application filed July 6, 1896. fierial No. 598,236. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OoLIN SALMOND, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Freight- Carrying Vessels; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of said invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it most nearly appertains to make, use, and practice the same.

This invention relates to improvements in maritime vessels, and more particularly to freight-carrying vessels and to the method of handling the freight in unloading; and the objects in View in the said invention are saving of labor in unloading the freight, saving of waste in breakage, increasing the speed and facility with which a vessel maybe unloaded, and saving in the wear and tear on the Vessel.

While the invention has advantages in handling any bulky freightsuch as coal, ores, corn in the ear, and many others-I have shown it in its application to coal-handling, as its peculiar advantages areappreciated the more in that class of transportation.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of a vessel provided with this invention. Fig. 2 is a plan View of the vessel, the hatches being removed to show the interior construction. Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail in section of the tunnel. Fig. 4 is a cross-section of the vessel.

The most approved method of unloading coal from a vessel heretofore has been to provide digging-shovels which descend with distended jaws upon the coal as it lays in the hold, and by drawing the jaws of the shovel together the coal is caught between the jaws, which are then lifted and swung into position and dumped. The objections to this method are the breakage of the coal into small lumps, which are of less value, and the pulverization of the coal to which this method is subject. Another method which is largely followed in unloadingthis class of freight is that of hand-shoveling the coal into buckets and lifting the buckets out of the hold to be dumped. This method has the objections of the expense of labor, the breakage of the coal, and of the danger to which the laborers are exposed.

This invention consists in forming coalbunkers in the vessel, which bunkers are provided with gates and chutes at or near the bottom for delivering their contents into cars or receptacles detachably mounted on cars, in providing cars and a track to operate the same upon,which extends lengthwise the ship, and in framing the track over to form a tunnel with the gates and chutes of the bunkers opening into it and provided with shafts for the raising the freight when brought under the said shafts by the cars.

As shown in the drawings, the letters A designate the bunkers. As at present constructed the hold of a vessel of usual construction is provided with the tunnel B. This is placed as near the bottom of the vessel as possible. To do this, the ballast-tank, which is usually carried straight across the bottom above the keel, is here divided in the center and formed into separate tanks C C on either side the keel, as shown in Fig. 4 of drawings. The tops of these tanks form the bottoms of the bunkers and are inclined, as shown, to as steep an angle as practical to cause the coal to flow toward the tunnel and yet maintain the ballasttanks in proper position.

The bunkers, it will be understood, are the holds of the vessel, provided with bottoms inclined toward the center of the vessel. These inclined bottoms maybe applied to any freight-carrying vessel after providing it with the tunnel B. The tunnel B is provided with the gates or. chutes B on both sides the crown of the tunnel. These gates may be of any desired construction and are so applied as to open from the lowest level of the inclined bottom.

Extending upward from the tunnel are the shafts B which open through the deck of the vessel between the hatches. Up these shafts the freight is hoisted by the usual hoisting apparatus in use at present.

In the bottom of the tunnel is laid a track D on which the cars E are run back and forth. These cars are trucks in which lifting-buck ets are carried. In some cases, however, the buckets themselves may be provided with wheels.

With a vessel built in accord with this invention the method followed in loading is the same as that at present followed. To unload, the cars carrying the hoisting-buckets are placed in position under the chutes 13" and the buckets are filled. As filled they are carried under the shafts B down which the hoisting-tackle has been lowered. The tackle is attached and the bucket raised off the car ortruck. By the time the tackle is returned down the shaft the bucket on the car from the opposite side the shaft has been loaded and stands ready to be engaged by the tackle as it is disengaged from the empty bucket just descended. As the empty bucket is lowered it is received on its car, which is immediately run back in the tunnel under the emptying-chute of the bunker being unloaded by this car.

By multiplying the shafts B and providing a car to operate on either side the shafts and a hoisting-tackle for each shaft the bunkers may be emptied of their contents very rapidly.

It will be observed that by this method of handling the coal it is not broken by either automatic or hand shoveling, the coal lowing easily out of the bunkers by the chutes and into the hoisting-buckets.

I am aware that heretofore there have been provided tunnels extending above the keel and raised from the bottom of the vessels, with closable openings in the crown of the said tunnel, in vessels wherein solid ballast has been used. I am also aware that heretofore vessels have been provided with waterballast tanks divided by partitions into separate compartments for the purpose of correcting the list, and neither of the said constructions do I claim.

Having thus described this invention, I

claim In a freight-carrying vessel, water-ballast tanks separated lengthwise the vessel in line with the keel thereof to form a passage-way between the said tanks, in combination with floors over the separated tanks inclined upward from the said passage-way to the sides of the vessel, an arch constructed across the said passage-way and between the ballasttanks and provided with closable openings extending upward from the floors over the tanks for the emptying of the contents of the space above the said floors, vertical shafts extending from the (leek of the vessel downward into the said passage-way between the tanks to form communication with the tunnel, and a trackway mounted within the said passageway to shift the unloading devices lengthwise the said passage-way, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 28th day of May, 1896.

COLIN SALMOND.

Witnesses:

E. F. MURDooK, BALDWIN VALE. 

